this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
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Fuck Cars

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A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I don't see how it could ever go away completely unless we develop some kind of teleportation device. People will always need a way to haul cargo around. It could certainly be reduced though with better city planning for those commuting to work and appointments and such that only need what they can hold on their person.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)
[–] Buddahriffic 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'd like that a lot better if the cargo isn't going to block the view of what's ahead.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

A standard bakfiets puts the cargo lower and the rider higher, but they're rarely this wide. There are some mail bikes like you're describing, with cargo in the back. There are also bike trailers. I think this is primarily for moving plants. There are some micro trucks that can haul a pallet in the space of a bike lane.

I mean, the thing here is that the vast majority of use cases are already solved for with bikes, motorcycles, and occasionally microcars or micro trucks and the remaining cases make more sense to be centralized. Like, you go to IKEA here and you have them deliver things to your house because why wouldn't you? One truck making a bunch of deliveries is more efficient than a bunch of cars driving empty to a warehouse and picking things up. If you need to move things, it makes more sense to pay movers when you need them then to pay €10-15k (or way more, it's like $10k in the US) every year to have a car. It's just cheaper to pay movers than to own a car for moving things. There isn't really a use case for owning a car that makes sense if you have functional infrastructure.

[–] Buddahriffic 4 points 9 months ago

Oh yeah, for sure. To clarify, I'm not saying, "this is a bad design, therefore let's just keep using cars". I'm saying, "this solution has some flaws that should be addressed before it's presented as a replacement for some car use cases".

Potholes could be dangerous for this vehicle because you might not have a great view of the road itself, but you might still be less likely to hit a child because you can see them easier than an empty truck or SUV.